No one has to slap the Texans with a 2-by-4 to make them understand that another inconsistent and ineffective start by the offense will doom them at Soldier Field.

Starting slow and defeating Buffalo 21-9 at Reliant Stadium is one thing. Starting slow at Chicago and hoping to recover against a Bears defense that’s reminding its fans of 1985 will be just about impossible.

The Texans are 7-1 and own the best record in the AFC at the midway point of the season because they’ve been resilient enough to overcome every obstacle, even those they’ve created. The only time they failed was in the Green Bay debacle.

The Texans started so slow on offense you could have sworn the Bills were playing Bruce Smith, Darryl Talley and Bryce Paup. This season, though, the Texans are too talented to consistently play down to an opponent.

‘We hurt ourselves’
For the first time this season, the Texans lost the battle for time of possession in the first half. The Bills had the ball for 15 minutes, 46 seconds. The Texans spent so much time trying to overcome penalties, they were able to score only one touchdown in the first half on Matt Schaub’s 39-yard pass to Owen Daniels on a perfectly executed bootleg.

Maybe it was what they ate during their time off, or perhaps they just overslept on Sunday, but the offensive players struggling through the first half must have been imposters.

They committed six of their seven penalties in the first half, including two on the first coverage team that took the field.

“We stopped ourselves in a lot of different situations,” Daniels said. “First-and-20 is hard for anybody to overcome.”

But the Texans did overcome. They let the Bills hang around long enough to trail 7-6 at halftime and 14-9 near the end of the third quarter.

“We hurt ourselves in the first half,” Schaub said after throwing two touchdown passes and compiling a 126.8 rating. “When you do that, it’s hard to make up for it no matter who you are or who you’re playing.

“We need to take a hard look at that and be critical of ourselves.”

And they did at halftime, when coach Gary Kubiak tried to set them straight by reminding them of their deficiencies and making a simple demand: Enough with the penalties at the worst times.

“In the second half, we got back to who we are — running the ball, (using) our play-action game — and guys made plays,” Schaub said. “We just tried to get everyone refocused and to stay calm because there was a lot of emotion going on. We had to settle down and do your jobs. Everyone bought into it.”

Taking control
The Texans wanted to be in position to run Arian Foster to use up the clock and regain the advantage in time of possession. They weren’t able to do that until the fourth quarter, and when they did, it was quite impressive.

The Texans controlled the ball for 11:29 in the fourth quarter. Foster got his 111 yards the hard way. In the fourth quarter, he had nine carries for 33 yards. That included three carries for negative yards. Finally, he was replaced by Justin Forsett.

“We were out of whack at halftime,” Kubiak said. “We were cleaner as a team in the second half. Ultimately, we won because we didn’t turn the ball over.”

And now they’re 39-5 under Kubiak when they run at least 30 times. That statistic is going to be severely tested at Soldier Field.